G13ActionBars

G13ActionBars is a simple, lightweight action bar tailored for use with a Logitech G13 Advanced Gameboard. The bars are based on the default action bars so if an addon works with the default WoW action bars, they should work with G13ActionBars.

IMPORTANT!
This addon has NO in-game configuration. Not even slash commands. It does however use a Config.lua file which you can edit to move bars around, change sizes, have bars fade out until you hover over them, etc. This is a complete action bar replacement that includes all the standard bars, menu bar, bag bar, extra button, pet bar, stance/shapeshift bar, and totem bar. It will NOT automatically work with a G13. You have to setup your G13 keys with the software that comes with the G13, and then bind those keys using the standard Blizzard keybindings in game.

The Problem
For the most part, standard action bars work fine for the G13 and many people are very happy with their layouts. Some people choose to use some of their G13 keys for tab, alt/shift/ctrl modifiers, and other such keys that don't directly map to action bar buttons. There are, however, some of us (like myself) that prefer to use every single key of the G13 as action buttons.

If you are like me, then you have used action bar addons and stacked the bars up into rows. This is simple enough at first and does indeed work, but there are some problems with this. For one, it can be a bit wasteful since the G13 uses 2 rows of 7, a row of 5, and then a row of 3. If you use 4 bars, you are wasting a lot of slots that could be used on auxiliary bars.

You may then search for an addon that lets you have a single bar span multiple rows. This still isn't perfect, because the numbers just don't match up. You can't create a single bar for both of the top rows of the G13 (7 + 7 = 14, which is 2 more than standard action bar allows). You could use one bar for the top row, then use a single bar for the 2nd and 3rd rows. That bar works out perfectly to 12 buttons. But then you still have that 4th little bar of just 3 buttons, and a top bar with wasted buttons as well.

Another problem with the last method I mentioned is that most bars when using a single bar to create 2 rows it will attempt to "balance" the rows, when you really want one row to have 7 and the next to have 5 (with the second row centered under the first).

The Solution
That's where this simple addon comes in. It simply combines your main action bar, and the bottom left action bar into a single bar, and then you still have 3 full auxiliary bars leftover.

Here's how it works. The top 7 buttons are the first 7 buttons of your standard "bottom left bar". The next two rows (one with 7 buttons and one with 5) is your main action bar. It can be paged as usual, and will handle shapeshifts, stances, stealth, etc. Then you have the last row of 3 buttons which again comes from the bottom left bar. If you like to assign the two flat thumb buttons on your G13 to abilities, then you can optionally enable the "thumb buttons" which will add 2 more buttons to the bottom row for a total of 5.

So now you have an action bar laid out in the same arrangement of your G13, using standard action bars which is great if you then play on another computer without your G13, your spells will still be in normal locations on the default UI bars.

To Do:
Lots of bug testing is needed as I just whipped this addon up over the past couple days. I'll take some screenshots and get them up shortly and I'll whip up a little diagram to make it easy to setup your keybinds.

Credits:
This action bar mod is based on the very awesome rActionBarStyler addon created by zork. If you haven't seen his addons, you should check them out. He makes the beautiful Roth UI (a diablo looking UI). Many thanks to zork and all the other addon developers out there.

As I continue working on this addon I'll certainly run into problems and find solutions from other addon developers, and I'll add them to my list here.

Thanks for this add on. I tried Bartender4 but as you state it uses up loads of bars to get the configuration for the G13. Is it possible though to edit the addon so that the experience bar does not disappear and maybe is moveable. I have had a little play bur result is far from ideal. I get left with the up down action bar counter and cannot move the exp bar. Tips on how to do it or a upgrade to the add on would be gratefully received.

I actually quite like it, I'm also wanting to know if I could pretty much rewrite a lot of this (largely rewrite the mainbar section so it's just 2 regular actionbars rather than having the current layout) and use it as the base actionbars addon for my BobUI package.

Also I did notice a bug with the shadow priest stancebar showing up in the middle of the mainbar

If you are wanting to do that I'd actually suggest starting out with an add-on that's maybe not so niche like this one. rActionBarStyler from Zork (which I originally based this one on) is a good example. It doesn't do the funky G13 layout that, admittedly, many G13 users may not even like. I've started to deviate quite a bit from Zork's action bar, but that's still the code I started from, so more credit goes to him than I'd dare claim.

That being said, by all means feel free to base your own action bars off of this. The Bars.lua file would be very easy to add one line near the end for handling the BottomLeftBar just like the other general purpose bars. Then all you'd need to do is strip out the code in MainBar.lua and clean it up a bit to get rid of extraneous code since it would just be dealing with the main bar. All that's left after that is adding and modifying the appropriate variables in config.lua.

As to the bug with the shadow priest stance showing up, is that with the latest version (1.0.2)? I first noticed the bug on my warlock with 1.0.1 and it should be fixed in 1.0.2 but I didn't do a lot of testing with it. I simply added in a special case in Bars.lua for dealing with how the default UI likes to move those buttons for forms that are only part of certain specs, such as shadow priests and demonology warlocks.

Honestly only reason I wanna use yours is cause I can understand what I'm looking at when I look at your code (<-- lua newb).

As for the stance bar I have the latest update i think lemme double check.

I actually quite like it, I'm also wanting to know if I could pretty much rewrite a lot of this (largely rewrite the mainbar section so it's just 2 regular actionbars rather than having the current layout) and use it as the base actionbars addon for my BobUI package.

Also I did notice a bug with the shadow priest stancebar showing up in the middle of the mainbar

If you are wanting to do that I'd actually suggest starting out with an add-on that's maybe not so niche like this one. rActionBarStyler from Zork (which I originally based this one on) is a good example. It doesn't do the funky G13 layout that, admittedly, many G13 users may not even like. I've started to deviate quite a bit from Zork's action bar, but that's still the code I started from, so more credit goes to him than I'd dare claim.

That being said, by all means feel free to base your own action bars off of this. The Bars.lua file would be very easy to add one line near the end for handling the BottomLeftBar just like the other general purpose bars. Then all you'd need to do is strip out the code in MainBar.lua and clean it up a bit to get rid of extraneous code since it would just be dealing with the main bar. All that's left after that is adding and modifying the appropriate variables in config.lua.

As to the bug with the shadow priest stance showing up, is that with the latest version (1.0.2)? I first noticed the bug on my warlock with 1.0.1 and it should be fixed in 1.0.2 but I didn't do a lot of testing with it. I simply added in a special case in Bars.lua for dealing with how the default UI likes to move those buttons for forms that are only part of certain specs, such as shadow priests and demonology warlocks.

__________________
To err is human, to really foul things up requires a computer.

I actually quite like it, I'm also wanting to know if I could pretty much rewrite a lot of this (largely rewrite the mainbar section so it's just 2 regular actionbars rather than having the current layout) and use it as the base actionbars addon for my BobUI package.

Also I did notice a bug with the shadow priest stancebar showing up in the middle of the mainbar

Please by all means let me know if you find this addon useful (or worthless for that matter). I'd love to hear any suggestions for other features, changes, etc. that you would like to see and of course let me know about any errors or problems you encounter. I doubt I'll add support for addons such as Masque/ButtonFacade, but other addons that can change the look of the default buttons should work. I know for sure that rActionButtonStyler works just fine.

Keep in mind my goals are to keep things simple and focused on the main task of making an action bar with the G13 layout (and by necessity, other action bars to compliment it). The target audience for this addon is likely pretty small, but I'm really just working on it for my own use and thought there might be others that could use it.